Fred Kocks (born Ulrich F. Kocks in Germany, in 1929) received a degree of Diplom Physiker in the Department of Theoretical Physics (under Richard Becker) in Göttingen, in 1954, and then emigrated to the USA. He received a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Harvard University in 1959 (under the guidance of Bruce Chalmers) and then spent six further years there, on the faculty of the Division of Engineering and Applied Physics. One of his lasting interests, since then, has been the relation between the mechanical behavior of metal single crystals and their polycrystalline aggregates.

In 1962, Kocks became a U.S. citizen, formalizing his name as “Ulrich Fred Kocks” (usually using the abbreviation “U. F. Kocks”). In 1964, he spent a sabbatical at the Technical University of Munich, which resulted in the publication of his seminal research “Statistical Theory of Flow Stress and Work Hardening” [Phil. Mag. 1966].

In 1965, he was invited to form a Group for Mechanical Properties at Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago, where he collaborated with many successful researchers from all over the world. (Fred’s wife, Marianne, was instrumental in establishing, at Argonne, the Host Committee for Foreign Visitors.) The experimental work concentrated on solid-solution alloys, particularly Dynamic Strain Aging. With co-authors Ali Argon (MIT) and Mike Ashby (then at Harvard University), a monograph on “The Thermodynamics and Kinetics of Slip” was written [Prog. Mater. Sci. 19, 1975], followed by “The Kinetics of Non-Uniform Deformation” [Prog. Mater. Sci. Chalmers Anniversary Volume, 1981]. With organization of the Gordon Conference in Physical Metallurgy in 1977, Fred’s interest turned to high-temperature deformation and metal “creep,” as well as to interaction with the geophysics community.

Fred Kocks has held guest professorships at the Technische Hochschule Aachen, Germany (1971/72, 1979); at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada (1978); and at McGill University in Montreal, Canada (1982).

In 1983, Kocks became a founding member of the Center for Materials Science at Los Alamos National Laboratory where, again, the collaboration with many internal and external scientists formed the core of his activities. Joint programs with Prof. Rudy Wenk (Berkeley) led to an integration of the physics of metals and rocks. Two software programs were developed and freely distributed by LANL: popLA, for texture analysis and representation; and LApp, for the simulation of polycrystal plasticity. In 1998, a book was published on “Texture and Anisotropy” by Kocks, Tomé and Wenk, with further contributors [Cambridge University Press]. Kocks and Mecking summarized their long-term collaboration on the “Physics and Phenomenology of Strain Hardening” in Prog.Mater.Sci. 48(3), published in 2003.

Honors include the Humboldt-Prize of the Federal Republic of West Germany, in 1979; a Doctor of Technology honoris causa from Tampere University of Technology in Finland, in 1982; and a Senior Scientist Award from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, in 1985; as well as election to Fellow of TMS (1987) and ASM (1993), and member of the National Academy of Engineering, in 1999.

Fred retired from Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1999 and is now a 'Disatinguished Professor' Affiliate at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, Dept of Mechnical and Aeronautical Engineering. He has developed an interest in the Physics of the Mind.